Reflecting a commitment to create places that people love to use, winners in the 52nd Professional Awards of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) include the playing fields on the campus of Nike's world headquarters, the widely acclaimed waterfront park in Louisville, Ky., and restoration of President Jimmy Carter's boyhood farm in Plains, Ga. The winning projects demonstrate the exceptional influence landscape architects have on planning and approaches as well as site planning and design. Environmental rehabilitation and preservation also figured prominently in several entries.

Winners were honored at the ASLA 2001 Annual Meeting in Montreal, Sept. 21-25, in the categories of design, analysis and planning, communication, and research. Five Honor and 19 Merit awards in Design recognize the construction of site-specific works of outstanding landscape architectural design, including urban design. Three Honor and six Merit awards in Analysis and Planning recognize the wide variety of professional activities that lead to, guide or evaluate landscape architectural design. Two Merit Research awards recognize the work of rigor and historical research that gives evidence of examination of a problem using accepted methods and arriving at supported and original findings or solutions of value to the profession. One Honor and four Merit awards in Communications recognize design achievements in communicating landscape architectural information, technology, theory or practice to those within or outside the profession. This category includes published or written documents, multimedia or electronic communications.

For detailed information about each project, click on the project name for view images, the project profile, and contact information for the landscape architect. A downloadable screensaver of images from the winning design projects will be posted on-line following the ASLA Annual Meeting.

McMahon Duell Residence— Edgartown, MA
Landscape Architect(s): Horiuchi & Solien Landscape Architects
This wind-swept waterfront property on Martha's Vineyard was once used a pasture. The project was conceived as a complex of small farm buildings and outdoor spaces, intimately related to its natural and cultural context. The buildings are clustered at one end of the site, preserving much of the existing vegetation.

Silicon Graphics/Charleston Park— Mountain View, CALandscape Architect(s): SWA Group
The landscape, like the architecture of Charleston Park, is meant to reflect Silicon Graphic's philosophy of "serious fun." Developed on a 26-acre former brownfield, the design creates a strong identity for the campus while blurring distinctions between the private and public realms.

Gantry Plaza State Park— Long Island City, NY
Landscape Architect(s): Thomas Balsley Associates and Sowinski Sullivan Architects with Lee Weintraub
Gantry Plaza is the first phase of a 12-block-long system of parks on Long Island City's East River shoreline. With their four distinct piers and follies, the trilogy of spaces - Gantry Plaza, interpretive garden, and lawn promontory - will serve a broad variety of needs. Framed by crescent stairs, the plaza is designed as a grand civic space with sweeping views of Manhattan and a gantry structure that speaks to the site's heritage.

Louisville Waterfront Park— Louisville, KYLandscape Architect(s): Hargreaves Associates
Waterfront Park represents a major reclamation of land formerly used for industry and transportation. The park is made up of a series of varied and flexible spaces. The entire project is graded to break down visual and physical barriers between the city and the river, while simultaneously providing flood protection without floodwalls.

DESIGN

Merit Awards (19)

Boyhood Farm Restoration — Jimmy Carter National Historic Site— Plains, GA
Landscape Architect(s): Joe Crystal, Denver Service Center, National Park Service; Karen Vaage, Denver Service Center, National Park Service
The restoration of the farm in Plains, Ga., where President Jimmy Carter grew up touched on a variety of concerns related to preservation of cultural landscapes. Evidence of contemporary development, such as utility lines and transformers, was moved. These changes prompted the reproduction of lost features, such as a windmill and the lawn tennis court. The farm is now equipped to function as it did in past times.

White River Gardens— Indianapolis, IN
Landscape Architect(s): Rundell Ernstberger Associates, LLC
This three-acre garden complex and sister institution to the Indianapolis Zoo was constructed along the river levee after the Indianapolis Zoological Society revised its master plan to focus on the rapidly evolving White River urban waterfront. The Gardens are comprised of smaller garden rooms each unique in spatial quality and visual experience. Forty-nine bronze "critter" sculptures are scattered around the Gardens.

Battle Road Trail— Concord, Lincoln, and Lexington, MA
Landscape Architect(s): Carol R. Johnson Associates, Inc.
The Battle Road Trail is a five-mile pedestrian stretch through Minute Man National Historical Park. It is designed to place the visitor squarely in the landscape of April 19, 1775, the day the American Revolution began, in order to improve visitor understanding and interpretation of the site. The entire trail is universally accessible despite 17 wetland crossings, 100 ten-feet of grade change, and the crossing of a state highway.

Oklahoma City National Memorial— Oklahoma City, OK
Landscape Architect(s): Sasaki Associates, Inc.; Butzer Design Partnership
The Oklahoma City National Memorial is built on the site formerly occupied by the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that was destroyed by a bomb April 19, 1995. The design was guided by several principles, including the charge to provide a place of comfort, strength and hope, and ultimately, an uplifting experience for the visitor. Two gates, one marked "9:01" and the other marked "9:03" bracket a dark, narrow pool of water opposite a field of 168 empty chairs, one for each person who died in the blast. This reflecting pool symbolizes the stretch of time "9:02" when the bomb exploded.

Jackson Meadow— Marine on St. Croix, MN
Landscape Architect(s): Coen + Stumpf + Associates, Inc.
The collaboration of landscape architect and architect focused on how a study of topology can lead to a site-specific typology, as the form and materials develop from the specific systems and place of Marine. In order to preserve the site's rural character and open space, a planned unit development was designed with the 64-dwelling units grouped on only 30 percent of the site. The cluster arrangement became a way to emulate and translate the traditional village structure and to connect settlement to a landscape infrastructure.

The Rehabilitation of Washington Plaza— Reston, VA
Landscape Architect(s): Stephenson & Good, Inc.
Reston, Va., was once heralded as the vanguard of modern American suburban design with Washington Plaza in Lake Anne Village as its centerpiece. However, experimental details combined with the technology of the time - in this case, the use of concrete as an exposed element of design rather than as a purely structural material - yielded mixed results. Once on the edge of collapse, the rehabilitated plaza has become a catalyst for renewed interest in Reston's original designs and the effort to preserve unique neighborhoods nationwide.

Nikko Kirifuri Resort— Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture, JapanLandscape Architect(s): Andropogon Associates, Ltd., Carol Franklin, Colin Franklin, Yaki Miodovnik - Principals
The facilities and amenities designed for anew resort hotel and spa complex on a mountainous site in Japan fit seamlessly into the forested hillsides with minimal intrusion. Although spectacular in its beauty, the natural site posed serious challenges, such as complex landforms, steep slopes and high erodible soils. Design solutions for individual problems on the site were seen as interdependent, forming an integrated design for the whole site. The overall feel of the landscape suggests a rural Japanese village nestled within a forest setting.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis— Minneapolis, MN
Landscape Architect(s): The HOK Planning Group; McGough Construction Co., Inc. and Siebold, Sydow & Elfanbaum, Inc.
The facility overlooks the Mississippi River on the site of Minneapolis' original settlement. The design combines brick - the primary material in the adjacent North Warehouse District - and indigenous Kasota stone with contemporary detailing in precast concrete. A curved glass wall faces a landscaped plaza, the river and the Hennepin Avenue Bridge. The site is divided into four distinct spaces, each serving critical circulation, public, and historic needs, linking downtown to the river.

Anaheim and Disneyland Resort Urban Design Plans— Anaheim, CA
Landscape Architect(s): SWA Group
The plan covers an 1100-acre area that includes a world-famous theme park, as well as hotels, convention facilities, restaurants, retail, and other visitor-serving commercial uses. The plan established a comprehensive urban design for the redevelopment of the area surrounding the theme park and visually transforms an aging suburban environment into a garden-like destination resort. The projects focus was the streets and public spaces that surround the existing theme park and the proposed expansion areas, as well as the traditional urban design elements of land use, circulation, building massing, and infrastructure.

West Side Light Rail Transit System— Portland, OR
Landscape Architect(s): Murase Associates
MAX, a 33-mile light rail system, runs east and west from Portland and connects the communities of Gresham, Beaverton, and Hillsboro. The 18-mile long West Side travels through stretches of undeveloped land, as well as the cities of Beaverton and Hillsboro. Throughout the corridor, careful grading for drainage and slope stability and the use of regional and site appropriate landscape material was developed. Wetland mitigation was completed for five sites along the light rail line, and native plant material was selected to reinforce water conference measures and reduce the burden of maintenance.

Kelsey Seybold Clinic Main Campus— Houston, TXLandscape Architect(s): SWA Group
Kelsey Seybold lacked a clinical presence in the Texas Medical Center area of Houston and needed a main campus to house their varied health care resources and corporate offices under one roof. The client was committed to providing a public open space on the two-acre site, while allowing for future expansion. The project's creative use of stormwater detention resulted in significant cost-savings that were reinvested in the landscape, creating a highly finished, beautiful campus setting.

Nike World Headquarters North Expansion— Beaverton, ORLandscape Architect(s): Mayer/Reed
Nike began a 90-acre expansion to its existing campus in 1995 to consolidate employees and offices into one location and create new outdoor amenities, such as athletic fields, jogging trails, and playgrounds. Open space and woodlands were preserved as the heart of the campus, and the current site plan allows for future expansion without the removal of any existing trees.

Site Furnishings at Parliament Hill— Ottawa, Ontario, CanadaLandscape Architect(s): Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg
The development of the Parliament Hill site furniture is a component of the comprehensive landscape plan for the site as a whole. The design is based on the stone and metalwork detailing of the existing heritage lamp standards, railings, walls, and architecture. Each furniture piece is conceived to address specific site locations, conditions, and uses. Anodized aluminum is used as the main structural component; native white ash is used for all seating surfaces.

Jackson Park Pavilion Fountain Court and Town Square Court— Chicago, IL
Landscape Architect(s): Wolff Clements and Associates, Ltd.
The Jackson Park Pavilion was built in the early 20th century to provide bathing facilities for neighborhood residents, but fell into disrepair and disuse. The new Fountain Court contains an interactive water feature that recalls a carousel and a water maze that invites visitors to turn on their own water show pushing hand buttons and footpads. The town square is a landscaped courtyard featuring a central lawn, shade trees, and perennial flowerbeds.

Arizona Canal Demonstration Project Sunnyslope Community— Phoenix, AZLandscape Architect(s): M. Paul Friedberg - Landscape Architect; Jackie Ferrara - Artist
The ancient canals of the Hohokam Indians were the forerunners of the 181-mile network that today brings water to Phoenix and its neighboring areas. The Sunnyslope Canal Demonstration Project is Phoenix's first effort to illustrate the expanding urban roles of the canal corridors as unique outdoor spaces for education and recreation. A series of outdoor rooms were carved into the bearm, and a 15-foot wide promenade along the canal edge was lowered, bringing the pedestrian closer to the water.

Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial— White River State Park, Indianapolis, IN
Landscape Architect(s): NINebark, Inc.
A narrow, sloping embankment of the Central Canal was selected as the site for the new national memorial honoring over 3,000 recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor, America's highest award for military valor. Because the Medal originated during the Civil War, the memorial shares a contextual link to the military park that forms the northern border of the site. Through its use of complex materials and forms, such as the stairways, stainless steel columns, glass sails, and computerized sound and lighting displays, the project expands the typical public perception of landscape architecture and memorial design.

Community Center Park— St. Matthews, KYLandscape Architect(s): Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC
Tucked between major commercial areas and bordered by a highway, this oddly-shaped park had grown incrementally without much concern for efficiency or beauty. Improvements included adding ballparks, service and storage facilities, picnic pavilions, and walking trails through the park's wooded areas. The renovation opened up the park's northern, more natural setting for the first time. All materials cleared for the new ballparks were recycled on the site, either as design elements or mulch.

South Waterfront Park— Portland, ORLandscape Architect(s): Walker Macy
The South Waterfront project acts as a neighborhood park for the mixed-use RiverPlace neighborhood. The primary theme of the project is to reconnect the users visually and physically to the river; the park's grading, planting and paths reflect the river's sinuous form and intersect with the patterns of the city. Overlooks provide spectacular views of the river, the city, and surrounding mountains are established at the terminus of the park's walkways.

Northside Park— Denver, CO
Landscape Architect(s): Wenk Associates, Inc.
The park was developed on the site of the city's abandoned sanitary sewer plant to enable the redevelopment of the surrounding area as part of a city initiative to develop a series of parks along the South Platte River Corridor. Existing structures from the plant were adapted and integrated into park design. The reuse strategy yielded a 30 percent reduction in estimated demolition costs. Construction of the park has transformed not only the landscape, but also the city's perception of the site.

ANALYSIS AND PLANNING

Honor Awards (3)

Charles River Basin Master Plan— Boston, Cambridge, and Watertown, MALandscape Architect(s): Goody, Clancy and Associates, The Halvorson Company, The Metropolitan District Commission
Creating the first master plan for the heart of one of the country's preeminent urban park systems involved striking a balance between landscape preservation and reshaping it to meet modern needs and uses. Two years in the making, the master plan's comprehensive guide and action plan are based on a variety of multi-disciplinary analyses, from checking river channel depths to analyzing environmental remediation efforts to making intersection traffic counts.

San Antonio River Improvements Project- Concept Design — San Antonio, TX
Landscape Architect(s): SWA Group - Houston
The project prepared a master plan for 13 miles of urban river right-of-way north and south of the well-known San Antonio Riverwalk. The improvements will tie into major city streets and integrate the river back into the city and provide for pedestrian, bicycle, and passenger barge access. With an emphasis on restoration, the design solution will integrate remnants of the old river and respect the historic acequias the still irrigate the land today.

Yuxi City— Yunnan Province - People's Republic of ChinaLandscape Architect(s): Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg
As consultants in a foreign land, the team felt the need to be responsive to a different political, economic, ecological, and cultural setting. Key innovations included recommending limits to urban sprawl on agricultural lands by reversing land-use designations and focusing on the densification of the existing city. A publicly owned greenbelt system around the city was advocated to project ecological resources through wetland parks, canals, and pathways. Widely circulated in China as a model for city planning, the Yuxi Plan address the many challenges of urbanization and land-use change that lie ahead in China with its mass exodus of population from country to city.

Los Angeles Civic Center Shared Facilities and Enhancement Plan— Los Angeles, CA
Landscape Architect(s): Meléndrez Design Partners
The Civic Center was redefined as the "Ten-Minute Diamond," or the distance the average pedestrian can walk in ten minutes in any direction from City Hall. Open space became the most important element within this area instead of the buildings. The plan builds on historic topographies from the surrounding quarters without major reconstruction or reorganization of infrastructure. Opportunities for shared governmental facilities are developed, providing substantial savings that can be reinvested in the public realm and the open space infrastructure.

Euclid Corridor Transportation Project— Cleveland and East Cleveland, OH
Landscape Architect(s): URS/BRW
Landscape elements were the primary means of restoring amenities to a seven-mile bus rapid transit way along Euclid Avenue. Site-specific streetscape elements were designed to reflect the corridor's past and complement transportation infrastructure, and American elms were re-introduced. Development guidelines for the surrounding neighborhoods support the transit corridor with pedestrian-oriented housing and businesses.

Investing in the Landscape: University of Toronto St. George Open Space Master Plan— Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Landscape Architect(s): Urban Strategies, Inc.
The campus has remained a significant open space resource for Toronto; however, cars now dominate the landscape in several places. Landscape improvements revolve around an idea that considers the campus as an integrated whole rather than a series of isolated spaces. The primary objectives of the plan are high-level policies promoting ongoing improvement and maintenance of the campus landscape.

US Highway 93 Design Discussions— Flathead Indian Reservation in Western MontanaLandscape Architect(s): Jones and Jones Architects & Landscape Architects: Grant Jones, FASLA, Principal in Charge, James L. Sipes, ASLA, Project Manager; Charlie Scott; David Sorey; Alex Schwartz; Julie Neff; Ints Luters; Paul Sorey; Donna House; Anita Hardy; Mark Ellis Walker
U.S. Highway 93 is a 55-mile road that bisects the Flathead Indian Reservation. State and federal officials were focused on safety, but tribal goals were much broader. The collaborative design solution proposed demonstrated a renewed respect for the natural features of the land, with portions of the highway re-routed around wildlife habitats. The project illustrates that landscape architects can take a much large roles in the design and planning of major transportation projects, including roads, a task traditionally assigned to engineers.

Grand Canyon Greenway Master Plan— Grand Canyon National Park, ArizonaLandscape Architect(s): The Grand Canyon Greenway Collaborative: Chuck Flink, ASLA, Jeff Olson, AIA, Bob Searns, AICP, Peter Axelson, Dan Burden, Mark Fenton, Andy Clarke, Ben Pugh, PE, Charlie Gandy, Betty Drake, APA, Bob Pilk, ASLA, Brad Traver, Gigi Wright; Superintendent Robert Arnberger; The Grand Canyon National Park Foundation
Grand Canyon National Park has never had a system of interconnected trails purposefully designed and constructed to transport people through the park. The Greenway is the first network of trails and facilities designed to perform this function. It will provide vital infrastructure that will engage visitors' bodies, minds, and spirits and define the sense of place that makes the Grand Canyon a unique landscape.

RESEARCH

Merit Awards (2)

Restoring Nature: Perspectives from the Social Sciences and HumanitiesLandscape Architect(s): Paul H. Gobster, North Central Research Station - USDA Forest Service; Island Press
The book uses a recent controversy over ecological restoration in the Chicago area as a touchstone to examine the social aspects of restoration, conceptually and in the context of other places and situations in urban and wildland environments. The goal was to create and synthesize knowledge about the social issues that determine the success or failure of restoration projects and put it in a form useful for interested professionals and students.

Privately Owned Public Space: The New York City ExperienceLandscape Architect(s): Jerold S. Kayden in collaboration with New York City Department of City Planning and Municipal Art Society of New York
The purpose of this book was to evaluate New York City's 39-year pioneering program using zoning laws to encourage the provision of 503 publicly accessible plazas, parks, arcades, atria, and other public spaces at private office and residential towers in the city's densest commercial and residents precincts and determine which of these spaces were legally accessible to the public, featuring the required amenities.

COMMUNICATION

Honor Awards (1)

Ice Age Floods of Alternatives and Environmental Assessment— Parts of Montanta, Idaho, Washington, and OregonLandscape Architect(s): Jones and Jones Architects and Landscape Architects, Ltd.
In 1999, the National Park service funded a two-year study to develop concepts for coordination, interpretation and educations programs about the Ice Age Floods in a 16,000-mile region of the northwestern U.S. Landscape architects defined the scope of work, developed the methodology and timeline for the project, compiled an extensive inventory of Floods features, and conducted public workshops across four states. Their final report recommends a series of projects that could introduce and illustrate the impact Ice Age Floods had on the landscape.

COMMUNICATION

Merit Awards (4)

Preserving Cultural Landscapes in AmericaLandscape Architect(s): Arnold R. Alanen, University of Wisconsin and Robert Z. Melnick, FASLA, University of Oregon
While geographers initiated the academic study of cultural landscapes during the 1920s, it was landscape architects in academe and practice who led the cultural landscape preservation movement that began in the 1980s. To illustrate the importance of cultural landscape preservation, this book draws primarily upon examples and case studies that individuals in the field can use on a regular basis. By providing "a thorough examination of a blossoming field," one reviewer wrote, the book "has initiated discussions that will be critical to the future practice of general preservation for years to come."

Union Square— San Francisco
Landscape Architect(s): April Philips Design Works, Inc. and M.D. Fotheringham, Landscape Architects, Inc.
This PowerPoint presentation is an outgrowth of the mixed media - sketches, boards, two- and three-dimensional graphices - used for presentations during the design process of the Union Square renovation project. The show is designed to stand alone or be accompanied by a verbal presentation explaing the placemaking process.

Layers of RomeLandscape Architect(s): Roger Trancik, FASLALayers of Rome, an electronic textbook, helps the viewer explore the ancient city of Rome and how it rebuilt itself layer upon layer into a modern metropolis. Through digital 3D models, photographs, video, and narratives, the design of Rome is experiences while moving through layered images of the city. Virtual-space renderings take you back 2,000 years to Rome's Campus Martius and the changing landscape. The story of Rome provides a basis for thinking about cities today and concepts for successful public space.

Pioneers of American Landscape DesignLandscape Architect(s): National Park Service Historic Landscape Initiative, Heritage Preservation Services, Library of American Landscape History, The Catalog of Landscape Records in the United States at Wave Hill, The Cultural Landscape FoundationPioneers of American Landscape Design documents the lives and design work of 162 landscape practitioners, both well-known and unsung, all of whom played significant roles in shaping America's designed landscape heritage. Because many of the designers featured in the book have been absent from print, their landscapes have consequently been unsympathetically altered, lost, or threatened by demolition; Pioneers is providing the spark for better-informed historic preservation.

Classic Award -- The Classic Award is given to built projects that have been completed for not less than 25 years and not more than 50 year. It recognizes and publicizes the significant contribution landscape architecture has made to the public environment, calls attention to the element of time in landscape architecture and recognizes the long-term benefits created by the profession.